That Old House
by ardavenport
Summary: Station 51 answers a call to a house with unpleasant surprises, particularly for Johnny.
1. Chapter 1

**THAT OLD HOUSE**

by ardavenport

**- - - part 1 - - -**

* * *

SPLASH!!!!!!!!!!

Cold chlorine water filled his nose. Still holding his breath, Johnny Gage blew it out. He furiously scrubbed his hair, face, neck, arms.

Air, air, air!

He pushed upward from the bottom of the pool, shot out of the water and gulped in air.

"Johnny! Johnny!"

"Johnny!"

Squinting in the bright daylight, he didn't look around before plunging down under the water. He scrubbed his neck, his body, his arms, his chest.

Air, air, air!

He pushed his head up out of the water and gulped again.

"Johnny!"

"Johnny!"

"Bugs?"

"Johnny!"

Plunging down into the pool, he scrubbed his ankles, taking his shoes off, pushing his pant legs up. And he kept scrubbing. Legs, waist, as much of his backside as he could reach. His neck, his hair.

Air, air, air!

He broke the surface of the water again and stood.

"Johnny! Johnny!"

"Johnny!"

"Over here! Over here!"

The water only came up to his waist. He was in the shallow end of the pool. He pushed his wet hair back, wiped water from his face and turned around.

"Johnny! Over here!"

He dove down and came back up with his shoes, one in each hand and then stumbled toward the edge of the pool.

"Come on." His partner grabbed his arm. Johnny kept gasping as he climbed out, Chet Kelly and Mike Stoker helping along with Roy. He kept gasping for air, but it didn't seem to be going in. Roy led him to a white metalwork bench.

"Did you swallow any water?"

He shook his head and pushed his bangs back again. Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.

"Here try this."

Surprised, Gage looked up from the paper bag his partner held up to him. Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.

"Come on. Breathe." He let Roy put the offending paper bag up to his face. He blew into it. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh.

"Is he going to be okay, Roy?" Captain Stanley leaned over Gage's head.

"Yeah, I think so, but do you mind telling me what happened back there? Where did you find him?"

Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh.

"There was some kind opening panel in room back there. We heard him banging around inside and we found the catch for the door. He came running out as soon as we opened the door." Captain Stanley straightened. "You wouldn't believe what was in there. The whole room was floor to ceiling with nothing but bugs. I just about pissed in my pants looking at it myself."

Johnny lowered the bag from his face.

"That wasn't - - -" gasp, gasp "- - - the worst part, Cap - - - " Gasp, gasp, gasp. "As soon as the door closed - - - " gasp " - - - behind me - - - " gasp " - - - the lights went out." Gasp, gasp. "I couldn't get'em back on." Gasp, gasp.

Roy pushed the bag back up to his face again. "Breathe."

Johnny grabbed the back from him. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh.

"He must've got locked in there just before the old man started shooting at us."

Shooting? Johnny looked up at Stanley.

"Breathe." Roy pushed the bag up to Johnny's face again.

Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. His breath came easier, but he could still smell the chlorine.

"Yeah, it looks like he got a few bites." Roy touched Gage's hand. "Did you see what was in there?"

The Captain shook his head. "I didn't stop to look. But there were a lot of spiders."

"Hey did you find your man?"

They all turned and Johnny saw an LA County sheriff's deputy waving at them.

"We need to clear the house."

"Come on." Stanley looked down at Johnny and put a hand on his shoulder. "Can Gage walk?"

Johnny nodded. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh.

"Yeah. Help me with this stuff."

Johnny automatically started to reach for the drug box on the ground, but Roy stopped him.

"Just keep your hands on that bag." Kelly and Stoker picked up the paramedic boxes.

Roy put his arm around Johnny's waist and all six firemen left the poolside and went back into the house. They passed more sheriff's deputies in the dark, wood paneled hallways, along with the old furniture and piles of boxes. The disuse and decay of the inside of the house contrasted with the trimmed lawn and well-maintained and sunny exterior. They emerged onto the front porch and walked down the steps. Roy questioned him as they went.

"You don't have any dizziness? Abdominal pain?"

Johnny shook his head. Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh.

They reached the engine and the squad. Police cars were parked in front by the street.

"You think he needs to go to the hospital?" Stanley stopped by the squad.

"I'm fine, Cap." Gasp.

"Well, I think if he'd been bitten by anything poisonous he would be showing more symptoms by now, but I think we should take him to Rampart just in case. And we need to get you and Marco looked at anyway." Roy waved a hand toward Stanley's bandaged wrist.

"All right. I'll just check and see if they still need us for anything." But the LA County deputies did not need them for now. The old man - - his name was Richard Crandall - - was in custody and they were going to cordon off his booby-trapped house and go through it slowly later. So the squad and the engine went to the hospital. No sirens.

"So." Pant, pant. "Can you fill me in on what's been happening?" Pant, pant. "Who was shooting at us?"

"The old man who called us. And breathe." Roy turned the squad onto a main street.

"I'm fine." Gage took deep breaths. It still didn't feel natural, but he could get air in.

"Breathe."

Gage puckered his face at the bag he still held. Pant, pant.

"Well, I can stop this squad right now and we can talk to the captain about it."

Whuuuuussshhh. Whuuuuussshhh. Johnny pointed the bag at Roy who just smirked back.

"Well, anyway. Chet and Mike ran into another booby trap on the stairs while you were looking for a back way up. They didn't get hurt, but it almost dropped a bunch of boxes on them. Right after that the old man stopped yelling for help and told them to get out.

"What?" Whuuuuussshhh.

"I was still outside patching up the Captain and Marco, but the next thing I knew there was a shot and Chet and Mike came tearing out of there. That's when we realized you were missing."

Whuuuuussshhh. "Well, what was he shooting for?"

"You're not going to believe this." Roy turned the squad unto the main street that would take them to Rampart General. In the rear view mirror he saw Engine 51 following. "The old man had just finished booby-trappng his house for intruders, but he didn't have anyone to test his contraptions on, so he called for help from the fire department."

Whuuu - - - "What?" Gage stared back in open-mouthed shock. "Are you serious?" His voice rose an octave on the last words.

Roy nodded. "Yep. He needed somebody to test them out on." He exhaled equal amounts of incredulity and suppressed anger.

Johnny stared forward; surprise seemed to have knocked the breathlessness out of him. "Well, what did you do?"

"We called the cops!" He spoke more loudly than he meant to. He should his head. "We had to get them to get rid of the old man so we could find you.

"Well, then we had to help them clear the traps in the house because he barricaded himself in the attic. And they called the bomb squad. We had to trip four more of his traps so the cops could get to him. It wasn't that hard to spot the wires once you knew what to look for. And their was a tiger trap covered up with a rug that was pretty obvious."

"But he still had a gun. Wha-what did you do about that?"

"Well, he set the traps and barricaded himself, but he forgot the ammo. The cops broke in and cuffed him when we figured out that he'd run out."

Mouth still gaping, Gage shook his head. "Well, I kind of figured that there had to be a good reason it took you so long to get me out of there."

"Yeah." DeSoto's eyes flicked toward his partner in sympathy. "Sorry about that. The cops wouldn't let us look until we had the old man wrapped up." He made the last turn into Rampart.

"The Cap heard you banging around; that's how he found the catch into that room. It was hard to hear, so it must have been pretty well sound-proofed in there."

"Yeah, it must've been. I sure didn't hear any shooting. And I wasn't banging anything. I was _stomping_ on them. It was the only thing I could do. When the lights went out I didn't know which way I was facing. Every time I tried find anything, I could feel bugs crawling around on me. And when I _did_ find the door it wouldn't open. And the whole time there was this buzzing overhead up in the rafters, like there was a hive up there somewhere." Gage ran a hand through his messy, damp hair as if checking for insects that might have survived the pool chlorine.

The squad passed under the shadow of the hospital building and emerged in the emergency entrance parking. Roy turned the squad and backed up. The fire engine rolled in right after them and did the same.

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**- - - End Part 1  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**THAT OLD HOUSE**

by ardavenport

**- - - part 2 - - -**

* * *

Johnny's shoes squished when he got out of the squad. He scowled and uselessly brushed at the damp spot on the seat before closing the door. His clothes had only partially dried in the California heat, but everything else underneath was thoroughly damp. Roy went in ahead and by the time everyone else had followed him inside he was standing with head nurse Dixie McCall.

"The Cap and Marco have got some pretty deep cuts, and Johnny's got a lot of insect bites."

"Oh." She looked them over with sympathy. Gage asked her for a towel.

"Sure. You can all go in Two. I'll get Doctor Brackett."

They filed into the treatment room. Stanley helped Lopez up onto the examination table. Kelly and Stoker stood on one side. Gage sat on a stool. DeSoto stood over him.

"Don't scratch that."

Johnny scowled up at his partner, but took his hand away from his arm.

The door swung open. Brackett, in white doctor's coat and a dark blue tie, came in with Dixie.

"What do we have here?"

Roy pointed. "The Cap and Marco have some pretty deep cuts."

Brackett came around the table and looked under the dressing on Marco's leg. Then he moved on, took the Captain's wrist and peeled back the bandage.

"These are pretty deep cuts. You want to tell me what made them?"

"Would you believe a spear?"

Brackett stared up at Stanley and straightened.

"A spear?" Brackett's dark brows rose.

"Two spears." Marco pointed at his wounded leg for emphasis.

"It was this last run, Doc. Guy called the fire department for help, but he neglected to mention that he booby-trapped his whole house. Got us when we were just coming through the front door." His tone rose, agitated. "And Gage there got stuck in some room where he almost got eaten alive by bugs."

Even more surprised, Bracket looked around Stanley at Gage who just shrugged. The doctor went over and looked at the small welts on the paramedic's arms. He pushed back the blue collar revealing a couple more red marks. He ruffled through Gage's thick and damp hair and found another one under his bangs.

"Well, it sure looks like something's been nibbling on you. Don't scratch that."

Johnny guiltily put his hands in his lap.

"How long ago did this happen?"

"He was stuck in there for about an hour, Doc." Roy nodded down at his partner.

"Well, I don't see any necrosis, so it doesn't look like anything too poisonous took a bite out of you. Are there any other symptoms?"

"He did hyperventilate after we got him out."

"I did not hyperventilate." Johnny scornfully looked up at Roy, raising a hand for his objection. But it still clutched the tell-tale paper bag. He crumpled it up, shrugged and shivered a little in his damp clothes.

Roy continued. "And he jumped into the pool to get the bugs off."

Chet followed up from across the room. "Yeah, somebody get that man a towel." Stoker grinned.

Gage sneered back. "You've jumped in that pool, too, if you'd been stuck in there for that long."

"Oh, I'm not knocking you, Gage." Chet held up his hands in surrender. "I wouldn't have lasted five minutes in there without turning into a blithering idiot."

Sulkily silent, Gage accepted the apology. But Kelly couldn't resist a follow-up.

"So, it's a good thing that you already are a blithering idiot to start with."

Gage was offended, but everyone else in the room grinned or held in a laugh. Stanley spoke up, going back to their immediate needs.

"Can we get these patched up, Doc?" He gestured toward Lopez's wounded leg with his wrist.

"Right away. You're both going to need a few stitches. I trust that you are all up to date on your tetnus shots."

"That's mandatory."

"Good. But we'll still need the dates of your last booster shots for our records. Dix." Brackett nodded toward her. They set up a tray and listened to more of the firemen's complaints about the old man and his treacherous house while the doctor cleaned and treated the wounds. Lopez got four stitches. Stanley got three.

And Dixie got Johnny a towel. She also got him some ointment for his bites and told him not to scratch.

He took his shoes off and wrung his socks out in a pan on the floor. He had just put them back on and laced them up when Brackett finished bandaging Stanley's wrist.

The handi-talkie that Stokes carried beeped.

"Engine Fifty-One, are you available?"

After a nod from Stanley, Stoker replied. "That's ten-four. Engine Fifty-One available."

"County Sheriff requests your assistance at Five-Five-Five-Two-One Boa Avenue. Non-Code R."

Engine Fifty-One groaned. Brackett looked around at the roomful of suddenly very unhappy firemen. "Is that the house?"

Roy nodded back. "That's the house."

Stoker confirmed their response and Stanley led his grumbling men out.

Gage rubbed his hair again with the towel. "Boy, I'm sure glad we're not going back there."

Roy had not moved.

"Wait for it." The handi-talkie he carried beeped. Johnny moaned as Roy confirmed their response back to Five-Five-Five-Two-One Boa Avenue (Non-Code R) as well. They went back to the squad. Johnny wiped the seat with the towel before sitting down.

**

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- - - End Part 2  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**THAT OLD HOUSE**

by ardavenport

**- - - part 3 - - -**

* * *

When they got there everyone was standing around among a collection of various police cars, an ambulance on standby and them. The bomb squad was still going through the premises and the Sheriff's department hadn't exactly figured out what they needed the fire department's help with. But detectives had arrived to take their statements. They would be prosecuting old man Crandall. That kept them busy for almost an hour, but after that they were left standing around again.

Johnny and Chet entertained themselves with talk about what a nice cozy second alarm fire Crandall's house would make until Captain Stanley told them to knock it off and then went to find someone in charge.

"Don't scratch."

Gage grimaced back at his partner. "These are starting to itch."

Roy looked. The bite marks were hardly swollen at all, but they were a little redder, especially where Johnny had scratched.. "Well, put on some of that ointment that Dixie gave you."

Grumbling, Gage went back to the squad where he'd left it. He squeezed out a blob of white onto the largest spot on his forearm and started to rub it in as he walked back to where the others were standing within the yellow police perimeter tape. Neighbors gathered beyond it on either side of the house, talking and pointing. And a news truck rolled up.

Sitting down on the running board of the engine, Gage took his fire helmet off to put some ointment on his forehead. It felt cool on his skin and smelled faintly like antiseptic hospital soap. When he looked up, he saw everyone else's attention on a gathering of police and men in suits. Captain Stanley had joined them.

The group of officials finally broke up their conference and Stanley went with some of them up the shaded walkway onto the front porch and into the house.

Roy and Marco sat down next to Johnny. Chet expressed what they were all thinking.

"I hope that means something's going to happen."

"Or maybe they'll decide they don't need us." Stoker leaned on the engine. He pushed his helmet back. The two paramedics could at least be comfortable in their blue short shirt-sleeve uniforms while the engine crew wore their heavy turn-out coats. DeSoto watched Gage rub ointment onto the tiny welts on his arms.

"Do you need any help with that?"

Johnny shook his head. "Nyaah, I got it. I just wish this run was over." Roy silently agreed, resting his elbows on his knees.

It was already after four in the afternoon. Some of the curious neighbors had left while others arrived and stood craning their necks, trying to see what the excitement was about. Beside the news truck a man in a suit and tie was speaking into a microphone front of a cameraman, but they couldn't hear what was being said.

Captain Stanley emerged from the house and raised his arm.

"Marco, Kelly! We're going to need some pry bars and an axe!"

"Right away, Cap!"

The two unloaded the tools, then ran up to the front door and went in with it. Roy looked up at Stoker with sympathy.

"I guess they're not finished with us yet."

They waited. More neighbors gathered behind the yellow tape, now attracted just as much by the TV truck as by whatever the police were doing.

Both paramedics perked up when they saw one sheriff's deputy helping another out of the house. DeSoto went to meet them while Gage went to the squad for their equipment.

"What happened?" Roy took the deputy's free arm. He was middle aged, with thinning blond hair.

"He got stung by some bees up there." His younger and taller cop was more excited than his partner

"They weren't bees. They were wasps." The injured man made it to the engine and they sat him down on the running board. "There was a whole attic full in that place. And I'm not allergic, okay."

"You could of fooled me. Look at his arm." The other deputy leaned over him as Gage put the drug box down and opened it. Roy pushed back the officer's sleeve. His whole forearm was puffed up almost twice the size of the other arm.

"That's a pretty strong reaction there for one sting. Are you having any trouble breathing? Feel light-headed"

The deputy shook his head. "No. And it's not just one sting. Those little buggers got me four times I think."

Johnny wrapped a blood pressure cuff around the man's upper arm.

"Is this really necessary? I mean it's a little swollen," he wiggled his fat fingers, "but that's it."

Holding the biophone receiver to his ear, Roy looked up at him. "Well, allergic reactions can get pretty dangerous pretty fast. We'd better check with the hospital just in case. I'm Roy DeSoto and that's my partner, John Gage."

The deputy glanced at the other paramedic who was taking his pulse. "I'm Sargent Dave Albright. And this green kid is Sam Choo. You might want to check him for dampness behind the ears."

"Sarge. . . . "

The older officer just chuckled. "Been on the job for nine whole days."

"Oh, just starting out." Roy smiled up at him, but the rookie officer suddenly looked sullen. "They seem to start them younger all the time."

Albright heartily agreed. "You're telling me."

"Uh, Rampart this is Squad Fifty-One." A few seconds later, Doctor Brackett's voice answered.

"Fifty-One this is Rampart."

"Roy, vitals." Gage reached over and gave Roy a piece of paper with the information to relay to the hospital. Albright pointed at Johnny's arm.

"Hey, looks like something's taken a bite out of you, too. How come that's not swollen?"

Gage touched his arm. "Well, people don't always react the same way to insect bites."

"You're not the guys who were in that house earlier, were you?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. And that house," Gage pointed accusingly, "tried to kill us."

"Well, it looks like your men might have taken a bite out of it themselves." Gage looked to where Albright pointed. Stanley, Lopez and Kelly came out the front door while the deputy went on. "You wouldn't believe what we found in there. That old man was some kind of survivalist waiting for World War Three to break out."

"Yeah?" Gage sat up straighter for another look at the house, but there was nothing new.

Albright's vital signs were normal, but because of the swelling Doctor Brackett advised them to bring in their patient for observation. Albright moaned.

"That's not necessary? Take me to the hospital for a little thing like this?"

"Hey, Sarge. Better safe than sorry."

Albright moaned. "I've got to watch what I say in front of this kid."

Johnny stood up and offered him a hand. "Hey it's just a precaution. If it gets any worse while you're at Rampart, you can get treated faster than if you were waiting around here."

"You've got a point there. Not much to do while the evidence guys are collecting their things." The Sargent got to his feet and pointed at Choo. "You stay here. I'll be back."

The three other firemen arrived as Johnny collected the drug box. Stoker, who had been quietly watching while the two paramedics worked, greeted them. "How'd it go?"

Kelly stopped and leaned on his axe. "Oh, just a little breaking and entering for the boys in blue. And you'll never guess where the old guy was stockpiling his gasoline."

Gage and DeSoto looked at each other, but Stoker guessed first.

"Next to the water heater."

"Nope. Furnace."

"Are you serious?" Gage's tone rose in surprise and a little disgust.

"Dead serious." Lopez came up alongside Kelly. "As soon as the weather got cold, that whole place was going to go up in a huge fireball."

"Not that that would have been much of a loss." Kelly immediately looked as if he wanted to take the words back as his eyes guiltily went to the Captain. But Stanley said nothing about the crack since he had been thinking the same thing after seeing such a gross fire code violation.

"Well Sargent Albright here had a bad reaction to some stings from the wasps in the attic." Roy closed the biophone and handed the case to Gage. "We're going to go with him to the hospital."

Stanley nodded and pointed a thumb behind him at the house. "As soon as the county gets a truck in here to take out the old man's stockpiles of guns and the fuel, we're done here, too."

"Can't happen too soon." Kelly hefted his axe and went to put it away. Stanley and Lopez followed.

Gage went with Albright to the ambulance. The deputy declined to lie down on the stretcher and since he still seemed to be fine except for his swollen arm, Johnny didn't insist. The two attendants rode in front while they sat facing each other in back.

"What was that about sending a truck to pick up guns?"

"Oh, old man Crandall had guns stashed all over the house. Along with a lot of canned food and water. He was really stockpiling for the apocalypse."

"Whoa." Gage shrugged. "Crazy."

"Yeah. But he had help. He's got three grown kids and the detectives are going to be looking them up. No way that old guy fixed his house up like that without help." Albright sat back, resting his hands on his knees. "The guy's supposed to be pretty rich, but he spends it all turning his house into that horror movie you walked into. What kind of a life is that?" Albright scratched the sleeve above his elbow.

"Hey, don't scratch." Gage took the man's hand away and looked at the stung arm again. "Is it starting to itch?"

"Yeah. Not just this arm. Feels like I'm getting it on my whole body."

Gage put his hands of Albright's neck, checking for swelling. He didn't feel any, but the deputy's skin was looking a little blotchy. "Are you having any trouble swallowing or breathing?"

Albright looked thoughtful this time. "No. But I don't feel quite right either."

"Really, " Not finding any swelling, Gage dropped his hands, "feeling light-headed or faint?"

"No. . . . I don't think so. Maybe a little queasy." The Sargent's bravado seemed to subsided, perhaps because it was just the two of them in the back of an ambulance and he didn't have to look strong in front of a fresh recruit.

Gage checked his blood pressure again, but it was still normal.

Albright frowned down at the cuff on his arm. "I just wish I had your stamina with this." He waved a hand at Gage's arms, spotted with pink sting marks. "I got stung a few times by bees when I was a kid and it wasn't anything like this. Do you lose your resistance when you get older?"

"More like some people get more sensitive with age." The cop's expression turned distasteful at the word 'sensitive'. Johnny told him about the dark, infested room he got trapped in while Crandall was subdued. Dave Albright told him about what they'd found in the house, the hoarded food (rats had broken into it in the basement), piles of boxes of junk and magazines, a locked safe, closets of guns, stacked and dusty furniture, another tiger trap in a hallway on the first floor by the back door which was boarded up. But Crandall had a hired gardening service to maintain the yard, completely masking the decay inside his house. Normal on the outside. Rotten on the inside.

Gage felt familiar turns and deceleration. He saw Rampart's vast parking lot through the windshield in the forward cab of the ambulance. The vehicle backed up and a moment later the attendants opened the doors. Gage collected his drug box and biophone and stepped out. He kept an eye of Albright, but he didn't appear to be having any trouble walking. The squad backed in next to the ambulance.

"Hey Doc!" Brackett and a young nurse turned to Gage.

"Is this your wasp strings?"

"Yeah. His arm's swollen up pretty bad, and he says he's starting to feel a little queasy. And he's starting to itch."

Albright held his stung arm out for the doctor.

"I hope you can do something about it, Doc. Pain I can stand, but I don't know about itching."

Brackett's eyes briefly widened when he pushed back the sleeve and examined the swollen arm. Looking up, he pointed a warning finger. "Don't scratch. And we're all set up for you here." The young nurse pushed open the door of a treatment room for them.

"Do you need me for anything, Doc?"

Brackett waved Gage off. "No, that's fine. We'll take it from here."

Roy strolled up as Johnny turned around in the emergency department hallway. Doctors in white coats and women in white uniforms and nurses caps passed them. They went down the hallway to the bay station to collect supplies. The young nurse there nodded, but went back to reading her chart. The paramedics helped themselves to what they needed and put it all in a small box. Roy picked up the drug box and biophone, Johnny took the supplies.

"Well, hey I didn't think we were going to see you two back here so soon." Dixie greeted them as they were leaving. Both paramedics responded with smiles and, 'Hi Dix.'

Roy gestured toward the treatment rooms down the hall. "We just came in with a deputy who got stung pretty bad back at that old man's house."

"Worse than Johnny here?"

"Well, he didn't hyperventilate," Johnny grimaced when Roy said that word, "but he had a bad reaction to some wasp stings. Brackett's with him now; he'll be fine."

Dixie put a hand on her hip. "Well, it looks like it's been a full day for you at that house."

"Yeah, don't we know it." Johnny nodded back. "I don't ever want to see the inside of that old man's house ever again."

McCall looked curious. "Well, what happened to the old man?"

"Crandall? The cops have got him now. Unless you have room for him in your psych ward." He filled her and Roy in about what Albright had said about what the Sheriff's deputies had found. The guns, the gasoline, the stockpiles.

Dixie lowered her eyes before looking back up at them. "Sounds like he led a very lonely life."

"Looks like he worked pretty hard to make it that way for himself." Roy spoke softly, but Johnny felt no sympathy for him.

"Yeah, well if you spend all your time barricading yourself inside your house and setting traps for anyone coming to visit, it shouldn't be a surprise that you don't get very many." He rubbed his arm with his free hand.

Dixie pointed.

"Don't scratch."

Gage quickly pulled his hand away and held it up. "I'm not. I'm not."

"Come on." Roy touched Johnny's arm and turned to go. "See you later Dix." They left through the hospital emergency entrance, got in the squad and drove back to Station Fifty-One. They speculated about what would happen to Crandall, his children and his house.

It was late afternoon as Roy backed the squad into the station garage.

Roy sniffed the air. "Hmmmm, something's cooking."

"Yeah, I'm staved." Johnny walked into the dayroom first. It was a spartan rectangular space with big, plain windows, utilitarian brick walls and just enough furniture and chairs for six firefighters on duty and a guest or two.

"Hey, guys, you're just in time. Set the table." Standing in the kitchen end of the dayroom with the others, Captain Stanley pointed at them with a wooden spoon.

"Sure, Cap." Johnny went to comply. But Roy paused to look around at the big, empty space of the firehouse. There was hardly anything there in it at all. No traps, no bugs, no boxes. Just five other guys who were usually happy to see him.

Roy joined the others to help with dinner.

**

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**^^%%%^^ END ^^%%%^^**

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Disclaimer:** All characters belong to Universal, Mark VII and whoever else might own the 1970's TV show Emergency!; I am just playing in their sandbox.


End file.
